


your mess is mine

by elenamichaels



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/M, Friendship/Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-11-20 16:39:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11339307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elenamichaels/pseuds/elenamichaels
Summary: After seeing what's become of Star City and Oliver in 2046, Sara decides that she needs to stay.





	your mess is mine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nellywrites](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nellywrites/gifts).



> Based on the prompt from nellywrites for Sara staying in 2046 with Oliver. I hope you enjoy it!

Rip wasn't happy that she decided to stay in 2046, and judging by some of the looks she got from the rest of team when she told them they weren’t exactly thrilled about her decision either, but they couldn't really stop her without a fight. 

And it wasn't forever, but she had to stick around long enough to help get things back to as normal as they could be in Star City. Sara didn't buy the line that because it was just some version of the city in some version of the future, it shouldn't matter to them. It was a real version of the city that she called home, with a very real version of Oliver Queen who didn't have many people at his side anymore to help him fix things. 

"You didn't need to stay," Oliver said from behind her, voice still gruffer than she was used to from age and a lack of use, as Sara stood there watching the Waverider disappear from view. 

She wondered if she would come to regret this. She had been given a way to contact the team, but if something happened to them, she might be left with no other option but to stay in Star City 2046 for good. As she turned to face Oliver, she knew that she would have someone familiar by her side at least, even if she couldn’t return to her time. "Well, I am. So let's get to work, Ollie." 

-

Sara could see the toll that this life had taken on Oliver. He seemed to forget that she was really there sometimes, like maybe he just imagined that she had suddenly reappeared in his life again. So Sara did her best to keep him from spending too much time in the bunker, letting his guilt eat at him, because even with the work they had done so far to clean the place up again, it still felt a little too dark and depressing down there. And she did her best to coax some smiles out of him every once in a while, reminiscing about old stories and telling him about some of her adventures through time.

Cleaning up the city and keeping the criminals in line with Connor, who reminded her of Dig in so many ways, also kept them busy. Oliver was back in his element, with his bow in his hand out on the streets, and training Connor. Watching and participating in their sessions, Sara decided that another thing she wanted to set in motion before she left was getting Oliver to recruit and train more people to be a part of the team. He could still contribute to keeping Star City safe without having to be out on the streets so much, which Sara would be grateful for, because she already knew that after she left she would continue to worry and wonder about this Oliver in the future.

Sara also planned on getting in contact with Felicity before she left, to see if she could convince her to come back to the city now that Grant Wilson was gone and Oliver was working with the new Green Arrow. She would understand if Felicity didn’t want to come back, Sara couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to live through all that, but she figured she would at least give it a shot.

For now though, they continued training and doing their best to keep up with the criminal element of the city. That night, Connor was out patrolling the streets while Sara and Oliver remained back at the Bunker, currently sparring but ready to go if he needed their help.

Sara and Oliver usually didn’t talk that much while they sparred, other than some comments or critique of technique, and the occasional quip from Sara about Oliver being an old man. Though despite all their work, he was actually looking less haggard and worn down that he had when she first laid eyes on him.

Today though, Sara had something on her mind, and no better time to ask it. "If you could go back and change things, stop us from getting on the Gambit, would you?" 

It was something that she had thought a lot about ever since she first stepped on Rip Hunter's weird ship and learned that time travel well and truly did exist. Given the opportunity to change what happened to her, would she? And if she did, what would her life be like? She never would have become the Canary. Met Nyssa. Or experienced death so soon and everything that came with her resurrection through the Lazarus Pit. 

Maybe she would be settled down with someone by now. Who knows, maybe even Oliver if they were ever able to get themselves to a place like that, no longer so young and stupid and hurting someone they both cared about so much in the process. 

With a change to that one day, she never would have even ended up on the Waverider at all. Even with everything that she had been through, she wasn't sure that she would be okay with just erasing it all. 

"If it meant saving my parents and the people around me from suffering so much, absolutely. But I don't want to be the person I was before, either."

Sara nodded, understanding. "Not my favorite memory of myself, either."

They went back to sparring, and something in Sara felt a little more settled. She didn’t really believe in meant to be or whatever, but getting on that boat with Oliver had irreparably changed her life forever, in ways that she appreciated and resented, but there they still were. Together.

-

Along with cleaning up the bunker and the city, came cleaning up Oliver’s old apartment. She didn’t know how he had been living before she got there, but that was about to change too. When Oliver put up a feeble protest over her focusing on his apartment when they had bigger things to worry about, she shut that down by saying that she would be living there too for the time being so she was going to do whatever she wanted to with it. Oliver proceeded to let it go and help her in whatever ways he could.

It took a couple of weeks, they were busy and the place had kind of been a mess, but one day Sara came in and realized that the apartment really had started to feel like someone’s home again.

And she decided that they deserved the night off. So by the time Oliver got there, Sara had ordered in food, found some wine, and was ready to spend the night on the couch.

Oliver raised his eyebrows as she told him all of this, but when she simply patted the spot on the couch beside her in response, he sat down to join her.

“So,” she turned to him. “Any good movies come out in the last thirty years?”

Oliver laughed. “I probably wouldn’t know.”

In the end, Sara settled on something they both recognized, and after they finished eating Sara made herself comfortable on the couch while they watched the rest of the movie, head resting on Oliver’s shoulder.

Neither of them fell asleep there, but when the movie ended, she followed Oliver to his room. Just sleeping beside each other, it was the kind of comfort they both could use.

-

As the days went by, Sara wondered when she would feel like it was time for her to go. Things in the city were better, Oliver and Connor were working well together, and it seemed promising that he would be open to adding more members to the team again when the opportunity came up. Sara had even talked to Felicity, and though she wasn’t going to rush back to Star City right away, she had assured Sara that she would at least stay in contact with Oliver and make sure he was doing okay.

Sara knew that was her biggest concern at this point, whether or not Oliver would really be okay if she left. In their shared apartment, or training down in the bunker together, or when they were out on the streets fighting together, it was hard to look at him and decide that it was time for her to leave.

Sometimes, she would look over at Oliver and catch him looking back at her, like maybe he was wondering some of the same things.

One night, as they were coming back to the foundry after they’d crashed in and stopped a robbery, Oliver was the one that spoke first.

“You can go, you know,” Oliver said as he placed his bow and quiver down.

“What?” She turned to face him.

“Back to your team, your mission through time to save the world. That sounded important, maybe they could use your help too.”

Sara couldn’t help but wonder, “Do you want me to leave?”

“No.” Oliver shook his head. “I would love for you to stay, but that doesn’t mean that I think you should. This was always supposed to be temporary. I don’t want you to feel like you have to stay here for me, I’ll be okay.”

As he said that, Sara found that she did actually believe him this time. So, she nodded. “You’re right, I should probably get ready to call the Waverider back. Maybe, in the next day or two?”

Oliver smiled, soft. “Whenever you’re ready.”

They finished changing out of their gear and back into regular clothes before they headed home together. Some nights Sara stayed in Oliver’s bed, and other nights she didn’t, but that night she immediately went to his room without hesitation. Because no matter when she left, or whether or not she knew that he would be okay, she knew that she would miss him.

-

The next night, Sara was using the beacon that Rip had given her to call the Waverider back. She didn’t know how long it would take them to get there, but she did receive a response so she knew they were coming at least. So Sara decided that she wanted to say her proper goodbye to Oliver before they got there.

She had gone out on the balcony to make the call, and when she came back in Oliver was there waiting for her.

“Did it work?” He asked.

“I think so,” Sara answered as she came closer, stopping just in front of him. “So, I guess this is it.” Sara took the extra step she needed so that she was close enough to place her hands on Oliver’s face. One of her thumbs moved gently across his cheek. “I’m gonna miss you, Ollie.”

“Me too, Sara.” His hands wrapped around her arms, and they both just stood there like that for a while, holding each other.

Sara wanted to kiss him, it felt important that she did before she left, but she hesitated to make the first move to do so. Her eyes drifted down to Oliver’s lips, and when she looked back up, everything clicked into place. They both moved forward together, and their lips met softly at first, like they were feeling each other out again after all these years. One of Sara’s hands moved back to Oliver’s neck and Oliver’s hands fell to Sara’s waist, and the kiss deepened, their mouths opening further.

Sara allowed herself to get lost for a while in the sensation of kissing Oliver, but neither of them moved to take it further than anything beyond that, and eventually they broke apart.

“Something to remember me by,” Sara said with a laugh.

Oliver laughed quietly with her. “I could never forget you.”

-

They didn’t spend long waiting together out on the balcony before the Waverider made its’ appearance. 

Sara turned to look at Oliver one more time, holding the beacon out in her hand. “If you ever need me, promise you’ll use this.”

Oliver wrapped his hands around hers. “Okay.”

She allowed herself to hug him one more time, and then she was on her way to get back on the Waverider. 

As she walked toward the ship, Sara felt that whatever was waiting for her on it, she wouldn’t regret the time she had spent in Star City. Because now, even if she didn’t make it back to 2016, she would at least know that she made the future of Star City a better place again, even if she couldn’t be around to stop Grant Wilson’s uprising and all of the horrible things that came with it. She was able to spend time with a version of Oliver thirty years in the future, rebuilding the city they love and have loved each other in together. And hopefully, she would make it back from her mission and see him and everyone else again in the present. And maybe, one day, they would be ready for each other. 


End file.
